Exclusive | JWT's Sachin Das Burma way of Cheering India at the Olympics'12

JWT India has conceptualized a special campaign for the London Olympics 2012. What makes this campaign special is that it has not been designed for any specific brand but to commemorate the hardwork and determination exhibited by Indian participants in their preparation for the Olympics.Titled, Olympics 2012 - Cheer for India , the film is a tribute to the Indian athletes participating in Olympics and aims to capture the blood, sweat, tears that they put into their work. These are people who despite the obstacles and often, lack of support they face, continue to push themselves. These are people whose single dream is to represent their country on the world’s highest stage. The film motivates people to appreciate and cheer the efforts of these athletes who represent the country and bring honor to it.

 

Sharing insights into the campaign, Sachin Das Burma -copywriter , JWT said, “People in our agency were working on a couple of campaigns for some of our clients on the theme of Olympics. I thought let me also give it a thought. When I started working, I was very clear that I didn't want to write a commercial. I wanted to write something that reflects the truth and celebrates the passion and hunger of our athletes.”

Elaborating on the line of thought that the campaign has portrayed he said, “Before the start of the games, I read a lot of articles in the newspapers about how a lot of our athletes train on their own; without sponsors, without proper training facilities and coaches. But what amazed me is that how these guys were not affected by the lack of all these facilities. They were really focused and passionate. All they wanted to do is represent our country and win a medal. These facts inspired me. And also the fact about how most of the people in our country are completely oblivious to these efforts, sparked this line of thought.”

 

Being a pro-active effort, there weren’t any deadlines for the campaign, the only thing in mind was to launch it before Olympics 2012 commenced, adds Sachin.

 

“The basic idea that the campaign portrays is the truth behind the hard work of the Indian athletes who make it to the Olympics. No matter whether they succeed or not, they keep on working at it, with a hope of making it to the games one day,” revealed Sachin.

 

Speaking about the responses that the campaign has evoked, he said, “The intention was to do an honest campaign. The response on Facebook and Youtube has been fantastic. Almost everybody who has seen the campaign has posted it and shared it .These signs are encouraging.”

 

Talking about the team that developed the campaign , Sachin exclaimed that there are many people who have contributed their whole and soul in making the campaign. “I would like to thank Sumati Singh of JWT, for encouraging me to go ahead and bring this campaign out. This would not have been possible without Arun Gopalan, the director of the film. He is a good friend of mine and a very successful advertising film maker. Inspite of his busy schedule he took  time  out and worked on the campaign passionately. It will be fair to say that, if not for him, this project would not have seen the light of the day. He believed in it so much that he met all the athletes himself, heard their stories and translated them beautifully and honestly. At times, I had doubts whether we can pull this through, because of budget constraints but Arun convinced me and put in loads and loads of money to do justice to the idea.”

 

He also expresses gratitude towards the production house- Rana and Zina of Storytellers India, voiceover artist Arshad, director of photography -Kavin Jagtiani, background score artist Dhruv Ghanekar and Yusuf –editor.

 

A commendable effort has been initiated by JWT for the love of the country. It aims at spreading the word and hopes that others too join in to cheer for these unsung heroes of the country as they make the nation proud at the world’s most celebrated sports platform.